Photo by Hub :).

I’m a big fan of playing tricks on my own mind to get things done. For example, I’m the type of person who sets all my clocks to run fast by a few minutes (each clock by a different increment, of course) to stay punctual.

Recently, it occurred to me that there are a few other ways I could, maybe not exactly trick my mind, but at least play with my perception to get my freelance career moving along further.

Pretend you’ve been fired

This is one for those slaving away at the 9-5 and merely dreaming about quitting to freelance full-time.

What if that safe 9-5 job vanished tomorrow? What would you do?

Admittedly, this exercise of sorts hit me on a day I actually thought I was going to get the axe. I immediately started going through notes I’d made, looking for the name of a potential client I’d been discussing work with but had been procrastinating on following up.

Next I started sifting through story ideas I hadn’t fully fleshed out and started making notes on which publications I could pitch them to and plotted out the query letters.

For better or for worse, I didn’t get the axe but it left me with something to think about whenever I don’t have work.

So, to my original question - your job is gone, what do you do?

Are there any prospective clients you just haven’t followed up with? Do it!

Have you been meaning to research some clients and not gotten around to it? Maybe you should do that one, too. Then contact them about work.

Are there any methods of promoting your work you’ve only been exploring but haven’t gotten around to implementing? Perhaps it’s time.

Pretend you’ve already got the gig

My second exercise really only applies to writers. For the freelance writer type, you’re mostly selling ideas. While I enjoy the writing process immensely, the idea brainstorming part is painful. Which is the exact reason I haven’t been querying new publications lately (*slaps self on wrist*)

But as I lazed around not thinking of new ideas, something dawned on me. I come up with a couple of ideas per month for Freelance Switch. None of the publications I write columns for have ever had to run a blank space under my name because I couldn’t think of something to write. Why? Because I have to.

It’s really quite amazing what human beings can pull off when failure isn’t an option.

So then I thought, what if I did have a regular column in some Condé Nast published magazine? What would I write?

Obviously I don’t write the entire article, but at least flesh out the idea enough that if my hypothetical editor asked me what I was working on, he’d be satisfied with my answer.

Going through this for a few publications, suddenly I’m left with a nice pile of sellable ideas.

Lets face it, some of us (myself especially) need something to catch fire before we’re willing to deal with an issue and it’s better to put out an imaginary one before there’s a real one.